Events“Light and Fire” exhibition in the Russian Museum of Ethnography
February 12, 2004 - March 30, 2004

Within the frames of the festival “Evolution of the interior” the exhibition “Light and Fire” opened in the Russian Museum of Ethnography on 12 February.

Objects represented at the exhibition are the personification of the inseparable connection between light and creation of the world in different peoples’ minds. More than 300 lighting appliances which were common to the Russian North, Siberia, Caucasus, Central Asia and the Far East will describe not only the variety of lanterns, candlesticks and lamps, but also a traditional world outlook of different peoples. They will explain the way how Light and Fire are involved in the process of resolving the crisis which occurs when the borders between ‘this’ and ‘that’ realities are broken.

The world needs to be protected from weird forces and lamps with hand-made ornaments were the amulets to provide this protection. For the devilry these hand-made ornaments were the sign that the territory is under man’s control. The more intricate the ornament is, the bigger power the amulet possesses.